N-Doped CMK-3 Carbons Supporting Palladium Nanoparticles as Catalysts for Hydrodechlorination

The effect of nitrogen doping of a carbon support on the activity of Pd catalysts in the hydrodechlorination of 4-chlorophenol in water has been studied. Highly mesoporous CMK-3 carbons have been synthesized by infiltration of a commercial resol resin into SBA-15 silica followed by pyrolysis at 700 degrees C and removal of the template with NaOH. Nitrogen doping was achieved by infiltrating 1,10-phenantroline together with the resin. Equivalent porous texture and Pd nanoparticles size were obtained for the catalysts based on undoped and nitrogen-doped CMK-3 carbons. The catalysts allowed fast 4-chlorophenol hydrodechlorination with exclusive selectivity to phenol. A higher activity was observed at 30 degrees C for the catalyst with the N-doped support (76-81 mmol.g(Pd)(1).min(1)), showing the beneficial effect of nitrogen doping of the carbon supports. The different behavior was also evidenced by the activation energies calculated for the catalysts with undoped (53 kJ.mol(1)) and N-doped CMK-3 carbon (36 kJ.mol(-1)) in the 30-70 degrees C temperature range.